HUGE problems with USA 505 service

[mudfairy]

hi all,

just wanted to let prospective buyers know that while the 505 is a great model for reading, the amount of hassle involved in getting it serviced has been monumental!

for no obvious reason (no dropping, spilling etc; i kept it in a waterproof case) the screen on my reader started displaying incorrectly. i tried both a soft & hard reset and then when it made no difference, got in touch with sony who recommended that i post it to their repair centre in texas via registered & insured mail. i did so with the expected expenses & hassles at the post office and a couple of weeks later i received an email saying my unit had been received & to please phone to make a $30 payment for services. i did so 2 days after the email was sent and the operator took my details without any issue & made no mention of any problems.

last week (one month later) i received the unit unrepaired.

i have now made 5 phone calls to sony, none of which have come to any action. when i ask to be put through to a manager, i'm put on hold for periods up to 30 minutes (after which time i hung up). the first time i phoned, the guy said that the unit couldn't be repaired because i didn't include my warranty information (which i certainly did) and i must have given the wrong email address because they sent out an email asking for info & did not receive any response so returned the unit (this can't be right as i originally received emails from the company with no problems) . the second time i phoned, the lady said that the service center had inspected the unit & it was fine so it was returned unrepaired. the third time the guy said he would forward me details and then never did. the fourth time i was told i would have to send the unit back and make sure to provide accurate details. the fifth time i was put on hold for 30 min & have hung up.


sony refuse to give me any email contact details for customer support. on the third phonecall i was provided with a postal address in florida to which i could address my complaint.

i understood when i bought the thing that there would be some extra work if repairs were required but this is ridiculous. i'm hoping sony will just let me return it for a refund and i can go back to dead trees which bulky and time consuming as they are, don't ever cause this amount of trouble - the phone calls to america and the postage on the unit plus the cost of my time spent on hold add up to about $200 which is an awful lot of ebooks or paper books.

it's a massive shame that this has happened as i believe in ebooks and being environmentally responsible.

does anyone else have any advice about how to handle this?

[MerLock]

I'm sorry that I can't offer you any advice but WOW!

Were you able to recover your $30 at least because if you didn't, that sounds like fraud/theft. Just out of curiosity, how long have you had the 505?

I hope you can get it resolved since what you described is just plain wrong.

[Penforhire]

Ouch, bad experience. I'd go ahead and write that Florida address if I were you. It is odd that you can't get through by phone. I had a long hold time too but eventually got taken care of. I'd be unhappy if I fell into Sony's rabbit hole like you did.

[JSWolf]

I would go to the local SonyStyle shop and speak to the manager to try to get things sorted.

[mudfairy]

i have written to florida so fingers crossed! the australian sony people are totally disinterested which is fair enough....